Virgin Adapting Dan Dare

Virgin Comics is bringing British adventurer Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future out of retirement, with plans to publish a new line of comic books and develop a feature around the intergalactic flyer.

Dare — described as Britain’s version of Buck Rogers — launched as a comic strip character in the Eagle magazine in the 1950s. He’s long been a favorite of Virgin’s Richard Branson, who led the effort to acquire the publishing, TV, movie and video game rights to Dare.

The new comic book series will debut in November, written by comic book veteran Garth Ennis, whose credits include “Preacher,” “Hitman” and John Woo’s “Seven Brothers.”

The new books will have Dare emerge from a self-imposed exile, the result of his disgust with politics and the post-nuclear warfare that has destroyed North America and much of Asia — leaving the U.K. as the world’s last remaining superpower.